The ISRO chief while delivering a speech at the seventh annual convocation of Vels University on Wednesday said that tests were underway for a controlled landing of the spacecraft on the surface of the moon.

"ISRO will develop an engine that will help in the controlled landing on the moon. The mission is currently planned for the first quarter of 2018," he said, adding that scientists had developed an artificial crater to simulate the surface of lunar conditions for the landing experiments.

He further revealed that a series of ground tests is also in progress at the ISRO facility in Mahendragiri, Tirunelveli district, and in Challakere, in Chitradurga district near Bengaluru. "The satellite is also getting ready," he added.

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Chandrayaan 2, which consists of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover configuration, is an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission.

It is planned to be launched as a composite stack into the Earth Parking Orbit (EPO) of 170 X 18,500 km by GSLV-Mk II, as per the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Sorry to disappoint you but those are very old locations from a site study done in 2010 when Chandrayaan 2 was still a joint Russian-Indian mission. The most recent report on the site selection was this one in 2015:

Ah, thanks very much for that - I see that the proposed Cabeus Crater landing site is ~150km from the Shackleton Crater landing site where Bezos would like to set up a moonbase.

I guess ISRO has picked the same general vicinity because it means longer solar illumination that won't necessitate the use of nuclear RTGs to keep the rover from freezing at night? And of course it also has the permanently shadowed regions (cold traps) where water ice might still persist.

So is this region going to be the Lunar Mesopotamia, most friendly to potential colonization efforts?(and thus eventually the most contested, down the road)

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch its Chandrayaan-2 mission, an advanced version of its previous 2018 mission with the objective of deeper lunar surface probe, and another mission by Team Indus, a group of space enthusiasts who want to unfurl the tricolour on the moon's surface as part of a global lunar competition.

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While Team Indus is using the service of PSLV to take its 600-kg baby spacecraft to the lunar orbit, Isro will use its heavylift rocket GSLV Mk II for the mission. Dr K Sivan, director of Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, told TOI, "Unlike the 2008 Chandrayaan-1 mission when PSLV rocket was used for carrying the spacecraft, this time Isro is planning to take a heavier payload (combined launch mass: 3,250 kg) comprising orbiter, lander and rover to the moon. Therefore, GSLV Mk II is the preferred choice."

Highlights * Isro will use GSLV Mk II for Chandrayaan-2 as payload is heavier this time (combined launch mass 3,250 kg). * Orbiter will be deployed at an altitude of 100km above lunar surface. * Scientific payloads on board orbiter, lander and rover will perform mineralogical and elemental studies of lunar surface.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up to launch the Chandrayaan-2 Mission in March next year, director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, P. Kunhi Krishnan told media persons on the sidelines of the Independence Day celebrations at Sriharikota, on Tuesday.